Stress shown to Shrink your Brain

Stress shown to Shrink your Brain

Feeling stressed? Well here is another good reason not to be so.  It has now been discovered by scientists that if you experience long term stress the areas of your brain responsible for memory, ability to make decisions and keep attention will shrink.

Added to this, another study found that the immune systems of women who were stressed aged at an even faster rate.
Thankfully, they also found that stressed human brains do recover especially when the person stressed exercises regularly. Furthermore,there's growing evidence that exercise has very powerful effects on the brain,' said Prof McEwen. Meanwhile, Elissa Epel, a psychologist at the University of California, said: 'People who are stressed over long periods tend to look haggard, and it is thought that psychological stress leads to premature ageing

Hypnosis is a great solution to help the individual smooth out stress and simple breathing exercises and muscle relaxation techniques can be self-taught to help reduce the physical and mental effects of stress. The benefits of exercise include the lowering of a person's heart rate, the lowering of their stress related hormones. slower breathing, increased relaxation of their muscles, their digestive processes improve and an increase in the activity of their immune system. Overall, an improvement of their general wellness.

Progressive Relaxation

This technique was developed by a man called Dr Edmund Jacobson in the 1930's with an aim to relax each part of the body to help bring a greater sense of receptivity of the senses. Heres an example: Close your eyes and become more aware of the weight of your body , feeling your breathe coming in and going out, breathing more slowly than usual.  Focus on the rhythm of the rise and fall of your abdomen. Tense the muscles in your right foot. Hold for a few seconds, then release. Then go through the same process with your calf and thigh muscles. Repeat this process with your left foot and leg. Now, tense and relax each buttock, then your stomach muscles. Then tense and relax your right fist, then your arm. Now repeat with your left arm. Lift your shoulders up to your ears. Hold for a few seconds, then lower. Repeat this three times.
Scrunch up your face. then let go and relax all of its muscles. Now finish with focusing on your breathing. When you are ready wiggle your fingers and toes and get up all relaxed.

Wake UP HAPPY

David Power